If you look up the definition of defamation in the dictionary — just kidding, we’re not going that route. But it does remain to be seen whether filming yellow water coming out of a faucet counts as defamation, as one utility company in Arizona claims.
The woman who posted the video said the yellow stuff coming out of her faucet is water, and that she was shocked to see it when she turned on the tap one morning, reports AZFamily.com.
“I came downstairs and went to wash my dishes and there was yellow water,” she says.
She posted the video online afterward on a Facebook page where others in her community were complaining about the private utility that delivers water to the area. That’s when the lawsuit arrived, seeking $100,000 in damages and claiming she had defamed the company by making disparaging postings, with the intent to disparage and harm the utility company.
The customer says she’s not sure why the company went after her, as others have also been complaining about the water.
“You have to ask the plaintiffs,” says her lawyer. “They are the ones who brought the lawsuit on that.”
As her attorney points out, the company has to prove a few things in order to win — to defame someone the statement you make about them must be false. So if the water wasn’t really coming out of her faucet or was somehow tampered with to make it appear yellow, then that could be defamation. But simply filming what is spewing out of your tap isn’t likely to amount to defamation.
Meanwhile, she just wants water that isn’t gross.
“My kids were looking at it, like oh, what is that,” she says. “I was kind of shocked.”
The company hasn’t made any public statement or commented thus far on the lawsuit.
Water company sues customer for defamation [AZFamily.com]
via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2013/10/29/water-company-sues-customer-for-defamation-over-video-of-faucet-spouting-yellow-liquid/
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire